Review: Theatre of Blood

Vincent Price is Edward Lionheart, a fourth-rate ham Shakespearean actor who seeks bloody revenge on the savage critics who he blames for destroying his acting career. Dame Diana Rigg plays Lionheart’s daughter, Milo O’Shea a Scotland Yard detective, Eric Sykes as O’Shea’s partner. The group of snooty critics are played by Ian Hendry, Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, Arthur Lowe, Coral Browne, Harry Andrews, Dennis Price (no relation), Robert Coote, and Sir Michael Hordern.

 

***** SPOILER-FILLED REVIEW ***** It’s impossible to review this film properly without spoiling the ‘fun’ in the Shakespearean death scenes. Save the review for after you’ve watched the film. Which you should always do anyway… *****

 

Director Douglas Hickox (“Entertaining Mr. Sloane”, “Sky Riders”) and screenwriter Anthony Greville-Bell (“The New Spartans”) give Vincent Price the role he was perhaps born to play in this violent, macabre horror-comedy from 1973. Throw in an outstanding supporting cast of familiar British character actors and a bunch of Shakespeare references, and you’ve got a bloody good time. The premise is brilliant black comedy stuff: A third-rate ham actor takes violent revenge on his cruel critics. It had to star Vincent Price – a horror film about a bad Shakespearean ham? The veteran villain plays it for all it’s worth with that wonderfully mellifluous voice of his and his trademark flair for lip-smacking evil. His two ‘death’ scenes are absolutely extraordinary. Especially funny is Price adopting a light brown afro to portray a mincy hairdresser named ‘Butch’, which is only the second most camp thing in the film.

 

The supporting cast is where the most camp element of the film resides, and we’ll get to that in the second. Hickox has surrounded Price with some of Britain’s finest character actors (as well as Coral Browne, future Mrs. Price) to play some of the most odious, cruelly dismissive critics you’ll ever come across. Of the lot, the most impressive are Sir Michael Hordern, Harry Andrews, Ian Hendry, Dame Diana Rigg, and the inimitable Robert Morley. Oh boy, Robert Morley in this movie is really something to behold. Morley plays the aptly named Meredith Merridew, a campy, purple-and-pink suited, poodle-loving twit who gets perhaps the most cruel and twisted of all Shakespearean demises, derived from Titus Andronicus. It’s revoltingly funny. Subtle he most certainly isn’t, but nothing subtle exists here, and Morley is a lot of outrageous fun. Michael Hordern is the first one to bite it here, and his death-by-homeless-people is bizarre and eerie, actually. I found it amusing that Harry Andrews (who was gay in real-life) is actually cast as the skirt-chaser here, though I’m hardly suggesting he play Merridew instead (Even when playing a gay man in “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” he was overtly macho). The frequent performer of hardened military officers in many a war pic is terrific. His aptly named Trevor Dickman has not only a weak spot for the ladies, but also seems to think of himself as a bit of an amateur theatre actor too, going by his big scene in the film. He’s piss-poor at it, perhaps showing that this acting thing ain’t easy. His big death is to have a ‘pound of flesh’ taken from him, only to find it weighs more than a pound, so more has to be cut from it. Yikes. I told you this thing was gleefully nasty. Ian Hendry (Andrews’ co-star in Sidney Lumet’s highly underrated “The Hill”) plays perhaps the most measured and decent of all the critics here. His Peregrine Devlin takes no pleasure in running down a bad performance, in fact he’d much rather not have to watch Lionheart’s performances at all. However, it’s his job, and if Lionheart is a bad actor, he feels it’s his duty to call him out for it. You rather get the sense that Devlin finds bad actors like Lionheart an affront to the theatre world. Dame Diana Rigg, like Vincent Price, considers this her favourite film of all the films she appeared in. I’m more surprised with her saying that than Price, mainly because although she’s as terrific as ever, her role isn’t exactly the most memorable. I think she had a far more interesting character to play opposite George Lazenby in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. She plays the part well though, even if she’s unconvincing in disguise. She looks damn fine in go-go boots, though. Elsewhere, Milo O’Shea is solid as always playing an Irish copper, and the one and only Diana Dors inevitably plays the tarty wife of Jack Hawkins. Bless her heart, why change course when you’ve found your niche?

 

If you like your horror movie death scenes, this one’s got plenty of that sort of fun but with a Shakespearean twist. One poor chap gets stabbed and subsequently dragged by a horse. Joan Hickson meanwhile awakens one night to find Lionheart has done some amateur surgery on her husband in the middle of the night. You’ve got to laugh at the bloody mess (severed head included), played by Price in such droll fashion, and with a serious, lush musical accompaniment. It’s probably my favourite next to Morley being fed his ‘babies’. Meanwhile, I love how the homeless people who happened upon Lionheart’s nearly-dead body end up basically as his repertory players. I also liked the off-kilter shooting style of Hickox and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky (“Entertaining Mr. Sloane”, “Get Carter”), with rather garish, bizarre camera angles on occasion (Hordern’s death scene in particular).

 

When people talk about the best horror films of the 1970s, I think this black comedy-horror deserves a mention alongside “The Omen”, “Halloween”, “Dawn of the Dead”, “The Wicker Man”, “Suspiria”, “The Exorcist”, and “Black Christmas”. A terrific cult film that is actually deserving of having a much larger cult following. Vincent Price is perfect as Edward Lionheart, the supporting cast is lots of fun, and the Shakespeare-inspired murders are both gruesome and funny. If nothing else, it’ll serve to remind people just how violent and brutal Shakespeare’s plays could be.

 

Rating: B+